Be careful what you wish for, many who worship at the altar of the SEC might caution the Missouri football program as it begins to gear up for its maiden voyage in the greatest league outside of—including?—the NFL.

Missouri? This fall, and for many to come, it’ll be more like the state of misery.

No, that’s not original.

Nor is the notion that Mizzou—like Texas A&M—is about to discover a truth so vivid, so harsh, so brutal, that it can’t possibly be prepared for what’s to come.

The SEC is where Greek gods go to play football. A team from the finesse, cutesy Big 12, where offenses go hog wild (no disrespect to Arkansas!) in an affront to man’s-man, line-up-and-slobberknock football, couldn’t possibly understand.

That’s how many college football fans, particularly those in the South, are sizing up the Tigers’ new reality.

The Tigers themselves have a much different mindset.

“I think they look forward to playing in the Swamp and all the different venues, to playing all those SEC teams,” coach Gary Pinkel said at a booster event in St. Louis this week. “If you asked them, they wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s going to be so hard to win.’ They’d say, ‘Giddyup, man.’”

The players are confident. Their coaches—whose program has gone bowling seven straight years, with three seasons of 10 or more wins mixed in—are as well.

“Missouri has done a nice little job here in the Big 12,” offensive coordinator David Yost said, “and I think we have the chance to do the same thing in the SEC.”

The school has pumped more top-end talent into the pros in recent seasons than some SEC fans might realize. On both sides of the ball, too. The 49ers’ Aldon Smith exploded on the scene as a rookie in 2012, finishing with 14 sacks. Second-year linebacker Sean Weatherspoon started 16 games for Atlanta and was second on the Falcons in tackles.

Third-year wideout Jeremy Maclin was the Eagles’ top receiver. And rookie Blaine Gabbert—Mizzou’s third consecutive quarterback to stick in the NFL, following Brad Smith and Chase Daniel—started 14 games in Jacksonville.

That list of players won’t shame any of the top programs in the SEC. But it might remind some of them that Missouri hasn’t exactly been invisible.

Do the Tigers have enough good things going on to compete with the likes of South Carolina, Florida and Georgia—against which they open their SEC schedule in Columbia—for first place in the SEC East in 2012?

“Why can’t we?” defensive coordinator Dave Steckel asked.

Yost, especially, is feeling it these days—and not only because the recruiting coordinator for all of Pinkel’s 11-plus years in Columbia just roped in wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, perhaps the top recruit in America. He also believes his quarterback, rising junior James Franklin—who threw for 2,865 yards and 21 touchdowns last season, and ran for 981 and 15—will thrive against SEC defenses in the Tigers’ spread offense.

“I will be very disappointed if we’re not able to make him one of the best, if not the best, in the SEC,” Yost said. “We expect that.”

Yost loves his offense, even its ability to protect Franklin vs. the SEC’s terrorizing pass rushes. Of tackles Elvis Fisher and Justin Britt, Yost said, “We’re going to have two guys on the edge who can pass protect as well as anybody you can find.”

He also suspects he may have the SEC’s best receiving corps in 2012, with the 6-6 Green-Beckham sharing snaps with 6-5 Marcus Lucas, 6-4 L’Damian Washington and slot man T.J. Moe, whom Yost likens to Wes Welker.

Missouri will run its spread unapologetically in the most pro style-oriented conference in college football. Yost isn’t shy about—nor does he sense any irony in—bringing up Tim Tebow and Cam Newton as examples of why it can work.

Steckel seems more inclined to bend his system, which is oriented around the Cover 2.

“I don’t want to be like a dinosaur,” he said. “We have to change, we have to tweak, we have to adjust. Dinosaurs didn’t, and they went extinct.”

But Steckel, like Yost, is confident the Tigers will play winning football in the SEC immediately. He cut off a question about his defense’s ability to line up and hit—and run—with Missouri’s new league mates:

“Yes. Before you go on, whatever you’re going to say—yes,” he said. “I love my players. I think they’re tough, fast, good football players. I would never change them for the world.”

Where the quality of the SEC is concerned, Steckel launched into a Bull Durham-style diatribe.

“I believe chocolate is a great ice cream. I believe football is America’s sport. I believe in apple pie and Chevrolet. Do I think it’s the best conference in the country? I don’t know, but there are some fantastic coaches. And what makes a great coach are great players. So we’ll see.”

So, you know? Giddyup. Missouri isn’t afraid of the challenges to come. And maybe the Tigers will surprise even the staunchest of SEC believers in 2012. Some undoubtedly will see their confidence as an invitation to make jokes at Mizzou’s expense. We’ll see who’s right.